As we reported earlier this morning, one of the highlights of Steve Jobs' keynote speech was the news that former Bungie employee Peter Tamte is forming a company which will work to bring Microsoft games of past and present to the Mac OS. We have some details on what this might entail...

During the keynote, Microsoft games geek Ed Fries mentioned several specific titles that will come to the Mac OS - Age of Empires II, Links LS 2002 (a golf game), and MS Flight Simulator. There is even a possibility, although this has not been confirmed, that some older titles may make their way to the Mac, eventually. Here is a short description of Age of Empires II, which is an often-requested title by IMG readers:

Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings is the sequel to the award-winning, best-selling real-time strategy game, Age of Empires.

Age of Empires II spans 1,000 years, from the fall of Rome through the Middle Ages, in which players control the destiny of one of thirteen civilizations. The game keeps the epic scope of Age of Empiresí gameplay while evolving the combat and economic features. Developed by Ensemble Studios, Age of Empires II features the expertise of Bruce Shelley, co designer of Age of Empires and the hit strategy game Civilization.

What might be more attractive to Mac gamers would be a port of future versions of Asheron's Call, Microsoft's ultra-popular 3D online RPG, but no mention of this was given. We will be hunting down Fries and anyone else with a Microsoft badge at the expo to find out what games we might expect.

One hidden benefit of this alliance that might materialize - we said might - is the end of the embargo against a Mac version of DirectPlay, Microsoft's proprietary networking protocol. Now, just because we will have a Mac version of Age of Empires II does not mean it will be able to play against PC players, but this is a great opportunity to break the barrier that has held Mac gamers back for so long, and open this protocol up for Mac developers to use. For that matter, although this might seem sacrilege of the highest order, a Mac version of DirectX 8 would be a huge benefit as well, making porting games based on that graphics API drastically easier. We know, that sounds like a true Borg-ification of the Mac OS, but the truth is that the majority of games for the Mac OS will continue to be PC ports for the foreseeable future. Why not have same-day ports instead of 6-month ports? So, be sure and use that Comments link and let us know what you think about this new Apple/Microsoft alliance - and don't forget our Forums as well!